Ep. 36: Maplewashing -- Looking Behind Canada's Progressive Veneer

For decades, Canada has been a go-to point of reference for American progressives as a country the United States can and should strive to be. And while there are many parts about Canadian society that are measurably preferable, leftists in Canada find their country's glossy, socialist paradise image to be overblown and often a barrier to meaningful change. 

This episode examines this tension, the reality versus perception, what we can learn from each other, and the common and existential thread we share of white settler-colonialism. 

With guests Eriel Tchekwie Deranger of Indigenous Climate Action and writer Luke Savage.

Guests

Luke Savage is a Toronto-based writer and political commentator. His work has appeared in Maisonneuve, Jacobin, Current Affairs and elsewhere. He works at the Broadbent Institute. Follow him @LukeWSavage.

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is founding member and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action. Follow her at @erieltd.

Show Notes

Accounting For Histories: 150 Years of Canadian Maple Washing

Luke Savage | June 2017 | Open Canada

I feel betrayed by the government and a system that has destroyed the spirit of my people

Eriel Deranger | April 24, 2018 | National Observer

Justin Trudeau’s Two-Faced Climate Game

Damien Gillis | May 2, 2018 | The New York Times

Justin Trudeau and the Politics of Spectacle

Luke Savage | November 6, 2017 | Current Affairs

Canada’s checkered history of arms sales to human rights violators

David Webster | February 17, 2018 | MacLean's

Canadian arms makers get OK to sell to Ukraine

Murray Brewster | December 13, 2017 | CBC News

Canada’s abysmal record as an arms dealer

Adnan R. Khan | August 4, 2017 | MacLean's

The erasure of Indigenous thought in foreign policy

Hayden King | July 31, 2017 | Open Canada

Canada 150 is a celebration of Indigenous genocide

Pamela Palmater | March 29, 2017 | Now Magazine

Justin Trudeau isn’t the liberal hero the world makes him out to be

J.J. McCullough | January 11, 2017 | The Washington Post

Think Canada is a progressive paradise? That’s mooseshit

Jesse Brown | October 21, 2016 | The Guardian

Maple washing: don't be smug about Canada during the U.S election

Luke Savage | September 9, 2016 | CBC News

Canada's Arms Exports To Middle East Now 2nd-Largest After U.S., Report Says

Daniel Tencer | June 15, 2016 | The Huffington Post Canada

Canada’s prisons are the ‘new residential schools’

Nancy Macdonald | February 18, 2016 | MacLean's

Eriel Deranger: Fighting the World's Largest Industrial Project, The Alberta Tar Sands

Jenn Winton | February 4, 2014 | Cultural Survival

What Canada committed against First Nations was genocide. The UN should recognize it

Phil Fontaine and Bernie Farber | October 14, 2013 | The Globe and Mail

The ongoing legacies of Canadian genocide

Pamela Palmater | March 3, 2016 | Canadian Dimension

‘Cultural genocide’? No, Canada committed regular genocide

Jesse Staniforth | June 10, 2015 | The Toronto Star

Marchandises militaires: la grande hypocrisie canadienne

Naël Shiab | February 5, 2017 | L’actualité

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The Killing of Colten Boushie

We can’t talk about reconciliation while we’re still justifying killing Indigenous people

Eriel Deranger | February 16, 2018 | Briarpatch Magazine

How the Canadian legal system fails Indigenous people like Colten Boushie: U of T expert

Geoffrey Vendeville | February 13, 2018 | University of Toronto

The killing of Colten Boushie and Canada's hypocrisy

Andrew Mitrovica | February 19, 2018 | Al Jazeera

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Transcript

The full show transcript can be found here.